Poll: Half of Trump voters say Trump won popular vote

Roughly half of voters who said they voted for Donald Trump last November, 49 percent, believe Trump won the popular vote, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll. That's compared to 40 percent who say Democrat Hillary Clinton won.

Overall, a majority of voters, 59 percent, believe Clinton won more votes than Trump, but 28 percent believe Trump won more votes.

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Respondents were asked which presidential candidate won the national popular vote and the Electoral College after Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach — the vice chair of Trump’s controversial Presidential Advisory Commission on Electoral Integrity — said in a televised interview last week that "we may never know" whether Clinton won the popular vote.

The president himself asserted in late November that he won the popular and the electoral vote. "In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally," Trump tweeted.

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A report from the Federal Election Commission, compiled earlier this year from official state election results, credits Clinton with winning nearly 2.9 million more votes than Trump out of a total of almost 137 million votes cast.

The poll results were more resounding when it comes to the Electoral College: 72 percent say Trump won, compared to only 14 percent who say Clinton was the victor. Trump won 304 electoral votes, to Clinton’s 227. (There were seven faithless electors: Two of Trump’s electors defected to other candidates, as did five of Clinton’s.)

The POLITICO/Morning Consult poll was conducted July 20-24. The poll surveyed 3,981 registered voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Morning Consult is a nonpartisan media and technology company that provides data-driven research and insights on politics, policy and business strategy.